If you don’t know what a “Juicy Lucy” is, then prepare to have your mind blown. The Juicy Lucy is a stuffed hamburger filled with add-ins like cheese, bacon, mushrooms or onions. Until now, they’ve been difficult to make at home, but thanks to the Stuff-a-Burger Press, you can make your own version on the grill!

The Stuff-a-Burger is ingeniously simple to use, and it makes a massive delicious burger. In addition to a small pamphlet full of recipes for various incarnations of the Juicy Lucy, the package comes with three sturdy, easy-to-wash parts.

Although it is fairly intuitive to use, the instructions make it clearer, but here’s the gist of the process. Place the base inside the forming ring and roll out a ball of meat that weighs about a quarter of a pound. Be careful not to overwork your meat because that can make for a tough burger.

A caveat though, the Stuff-a-Burger makes a huge burger, best suited for hearty appetites. This also means that cooking the patty all the way through to a safe temperature can be a little tricky and take some extra time. I found that by setting the ring over a coaster, I could make a slightly smaller patty that was closer to my actual hunger level.

After pressing down the meat ball either with your hand or the lid of the Stuff-a-Burger to form a flat disc, turn the lid over and press it into the top of the patty to create a depression in the middle of the burger.

At this point, it’s up to the limits of your imagination to figure out what you want to use to fill the center of your Juicy Lucy. I used shredded cheese and bacon because, well…it’s CHEESE AND BACON!

Then take another pinch of ground beef or chuck, and press it into the underside of the lid to form another thinner disc. This will be the top layer of your Lucy Juicy, and brings the total amount of meat (not counting the bacon) to about 1/3 lb per burger. Go ahead and renew that YMCA membership…

Use the lid to press the top patty on top of the bottom patty and fillings, and then seal the edges gently with your fingers. The resulting burger should be sturdy enough to cook in a pan, on a griddle or on your grill without fear of falling apart. This is pretty significant, because if you try to just stop your own burger without using the Stuff-a-Burger, it’s easy to create a real mess!

Do remember to cook any ingredients you use as stuffing in advance, because they won’t really get much more well-done during the grilling process. You can expect the cheese to melt, though, and that’s a very good thing. I prefer big buns (and I cannot lie…) when I make one of these behemoths, because you don’t want too much of the burger hanging over the edges.

The resulting burgers have been delicious, and it’s fun to let guests build their own burgers from an assortment of fillings. I’m sure it would be fun for kids too, although the burgers might be a little large for smaller appetites.

To change up your normal ho-hum burger routine, give the Stuff-a-Burger a try. At less than six bucks on Amazon, it’s an inexpensive addition to your kitchen arsenal.

The Stuff-a-Burger is available on Amazon and at many kitchen gadget outlets.

MSRP: $5.88

What I like: Easy to use fun little gadget that makes a unique burger.

What can be improved: Burgers are pretty huge compared to what I would normally make for myself.

Chris is a native of Nashville, TN and an honors graduate from Stanford University (where it should have occurred to him in the late `80's that maybe this computer business thing was gonna take off.)After 25 years in the business of selling flattened dead trees to printers who used them to make something which the ancients called "books," somebody finally slapped Chris over the head with an iPad whereupon he became the Director of Business Development for an internet services company that works with US retailers to help them sell their products overseas.His other day gig is as a food and drink writer for several regional newspapers, magazines and blogs. Chris has a travel/restaurant guide/cookbook coming out next fall which he is sure your mother would just love as a holiday present.